Module 9 of 9 — Final Module

📚 M365 Admin Center Course · Module 9 of 9 · Final Module

Billing, Setup & Support

📂 Course: M365 Admin Center
📦 Module: 9 of 9
🎯 Exam: MS-102
⏱ Read time: ~20 min

MS-102 Exam Alignment
MS-102

Objective 1.6 — Manage Microsoft 365 subscription and billing: manage subscriptions and payment methods, configure billing notifications, purchase services, raise and manage support tickets, and understand Windows release health.

View and download invoices from Bills & payments
Manage auto-renewal settings on subscriptions
Configure billing notification email addresses (recommend shared mailbox)
Open and track Microsoft support service requests
Use Windows release health to check update compatibility

Exam Tip: Know the difference between who can manage billing (Billing Admin vs Global Admin), and know that Billing notifications should go to a shared mailbox — not a personal admin account — so billing emails are not lost when staff leave.

The final admin area every M365 administrator must understand is Billing and Support. This is where subscriptions are managed, invoices reviewed, payment details kept current, and support tickets raised when Microsoft services fail. Poor management of this section has led to real-world service interruptions — licences unexpectedly cancelled, invoices unpaid, and support tickets that languish without the right information.

💳 Billing

M365 Admin Center › Billing

Microsoft 365 admin center
|
Billing › Bills & payments

Billing

Bills & payments

Subscriptions

Licences

Payment methods

Billing accounts

Billing notifications

Purchase services

Bills & payments

InvoiceAmountDateStatus

INV-2025-0601 ①£4,28001 Jun 2025Paid

INV-2025-0501£4,28001 May 2025Paid

INV-2025-0401 ②£4,28001 Apr 2025Past due

① Invoice INV-2025-0601. Click any invoice to download the PDF. Invoices contain a full breakdown of all Microsoft 365 subscriptions, the number of licences, unit price, and VAT. Finance teams often need these for accounting.

② Past due invoice — immediate action required. A past due invoice risks service interruption. Microsoft typically sends reminder emails, then suspends services after 30 days of non-payment. Update the payment method in Billing → Payment methods immediately.

Billing: Key Sub-Sections

Section	What You Do Here	Exam Note
Subscriptions	View all active subscriptions, renewal dates, licence counts. Toggle auto-renewal on/off per subscription.	Turning off auto-renewal does not cancel immediately — services continue until the renewal date, then expire.
Payment methods	Add, update, or remove credit/debit cards or invoice billing details. Set a default payment method.	Update payment methods before expiry to avoid billing failures causing service suspension.
Billing notifications	Set the email address(es) that receive billing alerts — new invoice, payment failed, subscription expiring.	Best practice: use a shared mailbox (e.g. billing@contoso.com) not an individual admin's email — avoids losing alerts when staff leave.
Purchase services	Browse and buy new Microsoft 365 products, add-ons, and licences directly from the admin center.	You can add Copilot, Intune, Defender, or additional seat licences here without going through a partner.
Billing accounts	Manage billing account details — registered company name, address, VAT number, purchasing agreements.	Billing account details affect what appears on invoices. Keep the company name and address current for finance/legal compliance.

⚠️ Auto-Renewal: Know Before the Exam

A subscription with auto-renewal ON will automatically charge on the renewal date and extend the subscription for another term. Turning auto-renewal OFF means the subscription will expire at the end of the current term — no automatic charge, no new term. Services will stop working for users after the expiry date. If you want to switch products, turn off auto-renewal well before the renewal date rather than cancelling mid-term.

🆘 Support

When Microsoft services experience issues beyond what Service Health covers, or when your configuration requires Microsoft support, you raise a support ticket through the admin center.

M365 Admin Center › Support → New service request

Microsoft 365 admin center
|
Support › New service request

Support

New service request

View service requests

New service request

Describe the issue *

Users cannot access SharePoint Online — 403 Forbidden errors on all modern team sites since 14:30 UTC ①

Affected service

SharePoint Online

Number of affected users

~200 ②

💡 Before submitting: Check Service Health — no current advisories for SharePoint. Confirmed this is a tenant-specific issue.

① Clear issue description with timestamp. Good support tickets include: the exact symptoms, affected service, when the issue started, the exact error messages or codes, what troubleshooting has already been done, and whether there has been any recent configuration change.

② Number of affected users. This helps Microsoft triage priority. Widespread impact (many users) typically gets faster escalation than single-user issues.

Microsoft Support Tiers & SLAs

Support Plan	Included In	Response SLA
Microsoft 365 Standard support	All commercial M365 subscriptions	Critical: 1 hour \| High: 4 hours \| Normal: 8 hours (business hours)
Unified Support	Additional paid plan	Critical: 15 minutes \| Priority routing; 24×7 for critical
Premier Support	Enterprise agreements	Dedicated TAM; fastest escalation paths

💡 Severity Levels

When creating a service request, you select a severity: Critical (Sev A) — complete business impact, service is down; High (Sev B) — significant impact, core business process degraded; Normal (Sev C) — minimal business impact, workaround exists. Selecting the correct severity affects response time. Over-rating issues as Critical when there is no genuine business outage is discouraged and can result in being re-classified by the support team.

🪟 Health → Windows Release Health

Windows Release Health (under Health in the left navigation) gives administrators visibility into the status of Windows feature updates and known compatibility issues specific to their environment.

Current channel releases — track which Windows versions are being serviced and their end-of-support dates.
Known issues — Microsoft documents bugs and regressions discovered after release. If users report issues after a Windows Update, check here first before raising a support ticket.
Safeguard holds — if Microsoft detects a known incompatibility between a feature update and apps or drivers in your tenant, it places a safeguard hold blocking that update from reaching affected devices automatically. Holds are automatically removed once the compatibility issue is resolved.
Deployment health — see the status of Windows Autopatch or Windows Update for Business rings deployed in your organisation.

✅ How Safeguard Holds Protect Your Organisation

If Microsoft knows that Windows 11 24H2 breaks a specific version of a LOB application that your tenant uses, it will apply a safeguard hold to prevent that update from automatically installing on your devices. As an admin, you'll see the safeguard hold on the Windows Release Health page along with the reason and expected resolution date. You can choose to opt out of the hold and install anyway (not recommended) or wait for Microsoft to lift it once the compatibility issue is fixed.

🎓 Interview Q&A

Q: A billing notification email for a failed payment was sent to a former employee's mailbox and was never seen. How should you prevent this in future?

Configure billing notifications to use a shared mailbox (e.g. billing@contoso.com) rather than an individual admin's personal account. Under Billing → Billing notifications, add the shared mailbox as the notification recipient. A shared mailbox remains accessible to any permitted member of the finance or IT team regardless of staff changes.

Q: Your organisation wants to stop its Microsoft 365 E3 subscription after the current year ends, but does not want to disrupt service before then. What is the correct action?

Go to Billing → Subscriptions, click the E3 subscription, and turn off Auto-renew. The subscription will continue working until the end of the current term. At that point, it will expire without charging the organisation again. This is the correct way to end a subscription at natural renewal without disrupting current service or paying a cancellation fee.

Q: What information is most important to include when raising a Microsoft support ticket for a service outage?

The most important details are: the affected service, the exact error messages or error codes, the time the issue started, the number and scope of affected users, any recent changes made to the environment before the issue started, and the troubleshooting steps already taken. Including this information upfront avoids multiple rounds of questions from support and significantly accelerates resolution.

Q: What is a Windows Safeguard Hold and how does it affect your device deployment?

A Windows Safeguard Hold is a temporary block that Microsoft places on a specific Windows feature update for devices in organisations where a known incompatibility has been detected. The hold prevents Windows Update from automatically installing the problematic update, protecting against widespread outages. The hold is visible on the Health → Windows Release Health page. Microsoft lifts the hold once the root cause is resolved.

🎯 MS-102 Mock Test

Module 9 — Billing, Setup & Support

5 questions · Scenario-based · MS-102 exam style · Pass mark: 70%

Question 1 of 5

Your organisation's credit card used for Microsoft 365 billing expires at the end of this month. To prevent service interruption, where should you update the payment details?

ASupport → New service request — ask Microsoft to update it

BBilling → Bills & payments → Edit invoice

CBilling → Payment methods → Add or edit payment method

DBilling → Subscriptions → Update renewal payment

✅ Correct answer: C. Payment methods are managed in Billing → Payment methods. Here you can add a new card, edit an existing card's expiry date, or remove old payment methods. This should be updated before the card expires to prevent a failed payment and potential service suspension.

Question 2 of 5

A billing notification for a failed payment was sent to a former IT manager who has now left the company. What is the recommended fix to prevent this from happening again?

AAssign the Billing Administrator role to the current IT manager and update their personal email

BConfigure billing notifications in Billing → Billing notifications to use a shared mailbox such as billing@contoso.com

CForward the former employee's mailbox to the new IT manager

DEnable billing alerts under Security & Compliance → Alerts

✅ Correct answer: B. The Microsoft-recommended best practice is to set billing notification recipients to a shared mailbox. A shared mailbox does not depend on any individual user account being active and is accessible to any authorised member of the team.

Question 3 of 5

Your company's M365 E5 subscription automatically renews in 3 weeks, but the finance director wants to evaluate alternatives first without disrupting the current service. What is the correct action?

ACancel the subscription immediately to avoid further charges

BRemove all user licences to signal non-renewal to Microsoft

CGo to Billing → Subscriptions, click the E5 subscription, and turn off Auto-renew

DContact Microsoft support and request a renewal freeze

✅ Correct answer: C. Turning off Auto-renew in Billing → Subscriptions stops the subscription from automatically charging and renewing at the end of the current term. The service continues working for all users until the current term expires — no disruption.

Question 4 of 5

You need to raise a Microsoft support ticket because users across your organisation cannot access Exchange Online. Which combination of details is MOST important to include for the fastest resolution?

AThe users' names and personal email addresses

BTenant domain, affected service, number of impacted users, exact error codes or messages, time issue started, and troubleshooting steps already taken

CA general description of the problem without technical details to avoid confusion

DThe names of all affected users and their licence types

✅ Correct answer: B. A high-quality support ticket includes: tenant domain, the specific affected service, the number of affected users to indicate severity, the exact error messages, the time the issue began, and what troubleshooting has already been attempted. This allows the support engineer to immediately begin investigation.

Question 5 of 5

After a Windows feature update is released, some users in your organisation report that a critical business application is crashing. You want to check whether Microsoft is aware of this and has blocked the update for affected organisations. Where do you look?

AHealth → Service health → Windows incidents

BReports → Usage → Windows activity report

CHealth → Windows release health → Known issues and Safeguard holds

DSettings → Org settings → Windows Update ring status

✅ Correct answer: C. Health → Windows release health contains Known issues (documented bugs in Windows releases) and Safeguard holds (automatic blocks Microsoft places on updates for organisations where a known app/driver incompatibility exists). If Microsoft has detected the crash and applied a safeguard hold for your tenant, it will appear here.

Module 9: Billing, Setup & Support